“She doesn’t like me much,” Light said quietly as we watched Merit walk into the roof access, as to go back downstairs.

“Were you mean to her once?” I asked Light as I turned to look at the small table and chairs we were about to sit down at.

There was a light rain falling around us, but we were on the side of the roof of the Animalia building that had these neat little areas with roofs and balconies. Merit had called them pavilions. This one was just barely big enough to cover the small table and four smaller chairs from the rain, but not much more than that.

In fact the chairs were kind of tiny… the kind of tiny that brought forth a memory. Of the last time we’d been here.

I happily moved a chair back as to study it before sitting in it, as Light sat down.

Yep. It was the same little stool-like chair that Vim had sat on that one time. In the hallway, while waiting for Fly and her people to show up again. Before the chaos.

How cute. I wonder if this was the same one…? I glanced around a bit, and was a little sad to see there were dozens of such chairs all over the roof.

Odds are not, then. Too bad.

Sitting down anyway, I went ahead and pretended it was the same one Vim had used. It made me happy to do so.

“I try not to be mean to anyone, Renn. Kind of the point of my subservience to my faith. But I will admit in my youth I had… been a tad unscrupulous with my prophecies. Enough so to earn me the ire of quite a many members. Even many amongst my own clergy,” Light said.

“Unscrupa-what?” I asked.

“Unscrupulous. It means to lack morals, to be unfair and dishonest. The way I had used it though wasn’t meant to imply I had lied about prophecies, but rather instead I sometimes omitted things or didn’t take the individual into account when telling them of theirs. Back then I didn’t understand that just telling people a prophecy, without warning, could be disastrous or even cruel and unneeded. Let alone doing so wrongly,” Light said.

Ah… “You told people their fates without warning,” I said as I understood.

She nodded. “One of those to suffer my youthful indiscretions was Merit. I had foretold her failure as a queen, and her kingdom’s downfall. Well… sometimes some things just simply shouldn’t be said,” Light said.

I nodded slowly, understanding perfectly well what she meant. “My old friend, Witch, had never told me a prophecy about me. Not directly. She sometimes hinted at them, or spoke of them during moments of great duress… such as when she died. But I always knew she had seen many of me. I always figured it was because she didn’t like the idea of tempting fate,” I said.

“A very possible reason. There have in fact been many saints who are more like Vim than you’d think. Those who kept their dreams to themselves, even at the cost of many lives,” Light said.

I smirked at that. “A saintly Vim? Or a Vimly saint?” I wondered.

“Either would be terrible, I think.”

Funny. I’d have found either to be lovely.

My ears twitched a bit as I turned my head, to look at a spot where rainwater washed down the top of the roof above us. It poured out of some kind of gutter-like thing, and was sent into a tiny little crevice which I knew ran to another nearby hole which would lead the water off the roof elsewhere.

This place was built far better than nearly any human building I’d seen. It was really weird how simple some of the ideas in its design seemed so… fancy, yet weren’t. That’s just a path for water to flow, wasn’t it? Angled properly, to keep it from flooding the rest of the roof? Why couldn’t anyone else do that? Or have thought of it?

“You’re a little upset with me, aren’t you?” Light then asked.

“Ah… I’d not been ignoring you. I was just fascinated with the building’s little designs and quirks,” I said with a point to the gutter.

“Hm. Yet?”

My ears fluttered again. “A little,” I said honestly.

“May I ask why?”

Of course you can. “You summoned me, while I was visiting a friend for the first time in a long time. And you just want to talk…? It’s not important? Couldn’t it have waited?” I asked.

Light blinked, her glowing eye fading a little as she did. “I see. I apologize… I honestly had thought you’d have been here. I didn’t realize you had friends outside the Society,” she said.

Friends outside the Society…? What a statement. Told me a lot about how she saw me, and what she knew about me, at least. “She’s a member. She’s one of the humans,” I said.

“Ah… now I understand. You value her time over ours, what with hers being so short. That’s lovely, Renn,” Light said as she understood.

I shifted a little on the tiny chair, not really liking how she had said it. That was the reason, of course, the real one. But I didn’t want to have said it aloud.

“And I’m not… too upset over it. Not really,” I added.

Light smiled and nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll make sure to not arrive without warning from now on… though that won’t be a problem, here in a few days!” she said.

“Hm? Why?”

“I plan to move in. Here,” she said with a point down at the table, though I knew what she meant.

I frowned at that. “What for…?” I asked. From what I had known and understood, she and the rest of her little group were heavily focused on the building of their new church. The one being built over the hole from that creature.

“To spend time with you, of course?” she said as if it was obvious.

“Aren’t… you busy?” I asked, trying to understand.

“I am? I’ll still spend most my day elsewhere, but this just confirms it. Me visiting without warning, as I would most of the time thanks to my schedule, won’t work. So my living here, and being able to spend time with you without causing discord is the best method,” she said as if it was already said and done.

“Um…” I wanted to ask what everyone else thought of that, but knew better than to do so.

After all she was not just a member of the Society… she was the daughter of the former leader. The one who had founded it.

By all rights she was free to live anywhere she wanted, as far as I could tell. Even if she hadn’t been important, or a saint, she should still have the right to live here, too.

What anyone else thought didn’t matter.

“I’ll not bug you too much, I promise,” Light said gently with a smile.

That’s what worried me!

“Will the others be staying here too?” I asked. Less wasn’t on the roof, but I knew she wasn’t far. She was likely down the stairs; the one Merit had just gone down.

“Just a couple others. To help me in certain matters. But the rest will stay where they are,” Light said.

Well… that was good, I guess…

“Not to change topics but… can I know what prophecy you spoke of? To Merit?” I asked.

Light blinked and tilted her head. “The one concerning her kingdom?”

I nodded. I wanted to know if it was the same one Celine had given me in her letter, or at least similar to it.

“Hm…” Light pondered a moment. “I foresaw Vim and a mighty foe. A monarch, maybe. They clashed and in the chaos her kingdom was destroyed,” Light said.

“Huh…? I thought her kingdom kind of just… fell. That it dried up,” I said. Both Vim and Merit had told me their sides, and that was how both of them had described it. Also, that wasn’t like the one Celine had given me at all! Celine’s had actually referenced the oasis drying up!

“It had. My prophecy had been wrong, in that sense. It had not fallen because of that kind of disaster, but another,” Light said simply.

Oh… right. “So do you think prophecies can’t ever be wrong then?” I asked, wondering if she was just like the Chronicler and Elaine.

“Of course not? They’re wrong all the time. Sometimes to the point it’s annoying. Take the little monarch dying back at Telmik, that creature had almost a dozen prophecies concerning it. Now that it’s dead, all of them are up to debate,” Light said as she gestured lightly at me, as if I had been the one to kill it.

Though… maybe she was pointing at me because I had eaten its heart? Surely not, right?

Actually, Vim hadn’t told me how long the little monarch’s heart would last inside me. Supposedly it’d be absorbed, eventually, but how long did that take…? Would Vim be back in time before it faded and Light no longer was tricked by it?

“Can I know those ones?” I asked, trying to not let my thoughts appear on my face.

Light smirked at me. “If you’d like I can let you read the records. That’d be quicker and easier for you than listening to me tell them off memory. I’m not like you, I don’t have perfect memory so I’ll not remember them properly,” Light said.

Oh! “You have records?” I asked.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

She nodded. “We write down and keep records of them all. I’ll admit there are some we… don’t, for obvious reasons. But most are kept written, both in-case we need to recall certain details and also if something happens to us. I have many scrolls and tomes of my mother’s too, if you’d like to see those,” she said.

“Really?” I grew excited at that.

“They’re mostly at Telmik right now, but they’ll be brought here once ready,” she said with a nod.

Oh… they weren’t here yet.

Light laughed at me. “You really are so emotive, Renn!” she said between them.

Emotive…? I felt my ears twitch a bit, as I realized what she meant. “It’s my ears, isn’t it?” I asked.

“They help, a lot, but your thoughts get all over your face too. I’m kind of jealous, and I really love it, honestly… it’s not often I meet someone so comfortable in their own skin that they don’t even try to hide their thoughts,” she said as she leaned forward as to lean against the table a bit.

“Vim says similar stuff,” I said lightly.

“A lot of people think Vim isn’t emotional and doesn’t show it, but that’s just because they’re blind. He’s more like you than not,” she said.

I nodded, a little excited to hear someone else say so. “Right!? A lot of people don’t believe me when I say I can easily read him too!”

Light happily nodded. “It’s too bad you can’t read his next move as easily as you can his annoyed face, huh!”

“Next move?” I asked, what’d she mean by that?

Light gestured lightly at herself. “I can’t see Vim. No one can, as far as I understand.”

“Huh?”

“Mother hadn’t been able to either. What happens is we see, or learn, of Vim or his actions through others. For instance I’ve had several dreams about you, Renn, and that is how I learn and see Vim’s actions. Take his recent departure, to go help a friend? I foresaw us having a conversation, not much unlike this one, where you told me where he’d gone. Which means that potential future is different now, since it had been one where I’d not known about Vim’s departure until you told me of it.”

Fascinated, I leaned forward a bit as to grab onto the table’s edge. “So you really can’t see Vim? At all?”

“Nope. No, I don’t know the reason or the how or why… if you do know, please tell me.”

I shook my head. “Is that common? Or…”

“Not at all. Mother had access to generations of saint journals and archives, and she and I have met many as well. As far as we are all aware, Vim’s the only creature we can’t prophesize.”

“Huh… I wonder if he found a way to ensure that, since he hates them so much,” I said as I wondered.

Light giggled at me. “What a cute way of saying it! Honestly I wish I knew how, or why, because then I’d do it too,” Light said.

“Hm you’d want to not be seen either?” I asked.

Light nodded. “I don’t want to know my own future. I hate it when I see something about to happen to myself, or around me… so if I could replicate his strangeness, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” she said softly.

My tail squirmed a bit, since I had heard beneath the soft tone the seriousness of her comment.

She had meant that. From the heart.

Which meant her own abilities, her ability to foresee herself, has either brought her great grief… or…

I blinked a bit as I realized what it was probably like, being a saint.

You knew your destiny. Or at least, had an idea of it. A general direction, per say.

Most of the saints I’ve met and known have all said similar things. They knew who they would marry and have children with. They knew how and where they’d die. They knew the terrible events too, such as Witch telling me of the injuries she’d endure when we left her home occasionally. There were a few times we had taken medicine or certain tools, just because she had foreseen a specific injury on her or myself.

Not only did it probably feel terrible to know the bad things coming your way… it undoubtedly felt bad to know the good too.

Hearing, and knowing, I’d likely have a child with Vim was a wonderful thing. But if I had foreseen it all…? The momentous moments…? Maybe I’d be less inclined to think so, then.

“Would you… give up your abilities if you could, then?” I asked gently.

“In entirety…? Maybe. A part of me wants to say yes, but another part of me wouldn’t know how to live any other way. Without my abilities… what am I? Who am I? I’d not be able to do anything great, or help or save anyone. I’d not be able to fulfill the demands of my gods, or support the Society or carry on my mother’s legacy…” Light shook her head. “I’d want to, but no. I’d never give them up.”

“I see…”

“How about you, Renn? Would you?”

“Me…? What abilities do I have?” I asked, smirking a little at her question. Or was she asking if I was in her shoes, if I’d have given them up?

“Would you be human? If you could?”

Oh…? I slowly shook my head. “You know… I’ve never really wanted to be one. Although it’d make living in this world a tad easier, I suppose. But if I was human I’d never know the Society, or Vim… or any of my friends, or you even,” I said.

“I’d rather be included in your group of friends, than just a ‘you even’ category,” she teased.

I smirked at that and nodded. “I just meant I’d not trade any of this. For nothing.”

Light sighed at me in a way that told me she hadn’t liked how I had tried to avoid her teasing. But she didn’t seem offended.

Though even if she had been…

Honestly did I want to become close to her…?

As much as I’d like for all the drama to end, and for there to be no chaos or issues in the Society… at the same time…

There was a line, wasn’t there? One that shouldn’t be crossed?

And wasn’t she crossing it? With her scheming? Even if her scheming wasn’t necessarily evil, in the truest sense, wasn’t she trying to manipulate me and Vim? Into doing whatever it was she wanted us to do?

Vim hoped for things. He hoped certain people would do certain things. He hoped and wished, but never forced it. Never actually went out of his way to manipulate the world or its inhabitants. As to obey his rules.

Yet… that was also the problem, wasn’t it? His lack of interfering has led us to this point.

Where was that line I wonder? And why did I allow, and want, him to cross it and yet got frustrated with her when she did?

Was I really that simple? That I’d simply overlook someone’s cruelty or manipulation just because I loved them? If so, was I any better than her?

Probably not.

But I wanted to be.

“You said you’ve had many prophecies of me?” I asked.

She nodded. “There’s a few I won’t share with you, even if you ask. As I said, I’ve learned my lesson about doing such a thing. But there’s also several I’d share the moment you ask for them, since it’d be better if you knew them than not,” she said.

“Can I have one? As an example?” I asked.

“How about the one you know of? Want to hear it in full?” she asked.

I blinked. “The one about my daughter?”

She nodded.

I gulped a bit and hesitated.

Hadn’t I just thought that knowing the full details could somehow lessen the experience…?

Did she not herself wish she couldn’t see her own fate?

Was that not proof? That I shouldn’t? That it was more ill than not to know?

And that wasn’t to say the least of Vim’s thoughts on them either.

Maybe they were right. Her and Vim. Although two very different people, they at least shared their feelings and opinions on them there in that way…

“A heavy question isn’t it?” Light asked.

“It is… can I think about it?”

“Of course! I’m just glad you’re not so tainted by Vim that you’ll at least consider it!” she said, sounding a little happy as she did.

Right… unlike Vim I was at least considering it…

I think I’ll ask a few others. Merit and such. Maybe their own experiences and insights would help me decide my own choice. Especially since several of them, like Merit, seemed to have bad experiences with prophecies.

“My friend… she foresaw her husband. Her mate. She saw children. Several children. But he died early, and only one of her children had been born because of it,” I said carefully.

Light frowned and nodded. “As I said… prophecies can be wrong, and are so often.”

“She was fine when speaking of it… but I can only imagine the heartbreak she had endured at the time. The realization. The loss of not just the one she loved, but the future she had with him. The one she had seen, the children she had known that would now never be. I can comprehend loss, having lost many myself… I can’t comprehend losing what I’ve never had,” I said gently.

The single-eyed saint seemed to soften a bit. Her shoulders relaxed, her smile became gentle. “You’re very wise, Rennalee. I can think of only a few dozen people that I know, or have ever known, who could comprehend the emotions you just spoke of and shared. Yes. The pain of knowing what could have been, is… sometimes too much to bear. Many saints, and many others who have heard of their own fates from them, have taken their own lives or wasted them thanks to such loss. One of my aunts, one of the Singing Sisters, had taken her own life because of it. You most likely know Mapple,” Light said.

I felt sad again, to hear once more of another sad piece of history about Mapple. It felt like everything I learned of her life was… painful to know. Did that poor girl not have any happy things in her past? Or did people just not share such things, and instead opting to share the trauma when speaking of others? If so how did people speak of me…? Did they speak of my family? Of my failures?

“Yet you seemed excited to tell me of them,” I pointed out to her.

“Because I believe you to be stronger than that. Many people see you as frail, but that is because of who you stand next to. Anyone is frail when next to Vim. But I see the truth, and not just because of my eyes,” she said as she pointed at the only one she had. Did she misspeak or did she still see from her other eye, I wonder?

“But I don’t want to be sad, Light. That’s… the entire reason I joined the Society. It’s why I chose Vim. I was tired of being sad,” I said. And alone.

“Yes… but you, like me, know that to truly appreciate the happy moments… we must first endure the sad ones,” she said.

I frowned at that. That was something Vim might say. Or probably would.

I though? I didn’t agree. I knew people could be happy their whole lives without ever encountering sorrow. One did not need to know grief to appreciate joy. I knew that for a fact.

But there was no point in arguing her point, or even outright claiming she was wrong. Because in a certain way she wasn’t. Because she’d just point out that one could appreciate happiness without knowing suffering… yet one who did know pain would appreciate that happiness more than the other would. And although I didn’t like that idea, I did comprehend it.

It was after all why I so passionately cherished the relationships I had. My Vim, my friends, my family. Because of how cruel and terrible my own had been growing up.

“Do you know how Vim’s journey goes?” I asked, choosing to change topics again.

She blinked at me. “You change topics like Vim does.”

I smirked. “Learned from the best.”

She chuckled a bit, and nodded. “I don’t. In fact, I don’t even know where he’s actually gone. I only know he has gone to help someone you consider a friend,” she said.

Oh…? So she really didn’t know! Or was she just lying? “You really don’t know?”

“I don’t lie, Renn. Not outright. I’ll avoid the truth, or circumvent it, but I won’t tell a lie. I don’t know who he’s gone to see, or help, or even why or how or what.”

Huh… “Part of your faith then? Because I know for a fact a saint can lie,” I said.

She smiled and nodded. “Yes. My faith.”

I see… “So then… do you know when he’ll return?”

“Kind of. I have an idea of it, or rather… I know something that will happen right before he arrives. So until that moment happens, I can be confident he won’t,” she said.

“Like knowing it won’t rain until a storm shows up in the distance,” I said, understanding.

“Right. Until it pours without a cloud in the sky.”

Ah… “I’ve encountered that a few times. It’s unsettling, but I enjoy it.”

“Do you?”

I nodded, as our conversations drifted into… more normal territory. Not about prophecies, dreams or beliefs and opinions… but instead to the simpler stuff in life.

What we liked. The weather we enjoyed most. My favorite places I’d been to so far. Her journey back here, on a strange ship that had almost sunk.

Although I was still a little bothered she had interrupted my visit with Roslyn… I decided to slightly forgive her. Because I knew, no matter how this all ended… I at least tried my best to be good enough. In more ways than one.

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